Home PublicationsL&LIssuesVolume 26 (1998-1999) April (No. 7)

Programs mentioned in this column have not been reviewed by the International Society for Technology in Education; their appearance here does not constitute an endorsement by Learning & Leading with Technology or ISTE.

By Judi Mathis Johnson

Travel the World with Timmy!

This inviting new multilingual program from Edmark provides children ages 4 to 7 with practice in many early reading and math skills. By seeing or learning about language, dress, songs, houses, clothes, arts, and crafts, children learn about life in other countries. They can celebrate other cultures with a variety of activities and scenes: a Kenyan lunch, an Argentine afternoon, a Japanese night. The languages available in the program are English, Spanish, Swahili, and Japanese, and the activities are Build-A-Village, Make-A-Story, Sing-A-Song, Arts & Crafts, Games and Kabuki Theater, and Timmy’s Dictionary. The dictionary contains the sounds and words for numbers, common family terms, and common everyday objects, such as dogs, cats, and trees. Edmark provides built-in question-and-answer practice activities for learning each language in a natural setting. The tools for unleashing children’s creativity are well designed. The hybrid CD-ROM runs on Macintosh and Windows computers. From Edmark, PO Box 97021, Redmond, WA 98073-9721; 800.691.2988.

Sound Effects for Multimedia Volumes 1 & 2
Music Loops for Multimedia
Sound Companion for HyperStudio

I love teaching multimedia production and watching students create exciting reports, interesting presentations, and individualized projects. But most of the support material—CD-ROMs with clip art, sounds, and so on—focus on the business world, not the classroom. Fortunately, the FTC Publishing Group has produced several products that have been useful for jazzing up a PowerPoint presentation to teachers or a student’s social studies report.

Sound Effects for Multimedia Volume 1, Sound Effects for Multimedia Volume 2, and Music Loops for Multimedia provide high-quality sounds and delightful music loops. For example, the bugle sound is a clear and not overly common segment that enhances student work. These hybrid Macintosh and Windows resource CD-ROMs retail for $24.95 each.

The real workhorse is Sound Companion for HyperStudio, a simple tool that helps students edit their sounds, music, and verbal recordings to desired sizes. Once edited, these clips can be used in any multimedia presentation tool. Specify Macintosh or Windows when you order this simple but useful tool for $49.95. If you have both platforms, then you might want to purchase the binder and both versions for $62.45 from FTC Publishing Group, PO Box 1361, Bloomington, IL 61702-1361; 888.237.6740 or 309.664. 1742.

Letter Sounds

Letter Sounds is the first title in the Tenth Planet Explores Literary series, and it’s now available from Sunburst Communications. Sounds are the basic building blocks of spoken words. Through high-quality sound and real-world videos, children learn the connections between letters and sounds. Throughout Letter Sounds, children discover and explore such concepts as spoken words are sequences of sounds, sounds in words can be represented by letters, and learning sounds and letters helps in decoding simple words. Teacher support includes the ability to sequence the letters to meet curriculum demands and individual student needs. A single hybrid CD-ROM costs $89.95; lab packs of 5 or 25 CD-ROMs or a site license can be purchased directly from Sunburst Communications, 101 Castleton St., Pleasantville, NY 10570-3498; 800.321.7511 or 914.747.4109.

The Native American Experience

The Native American Experience is the 11th title in the American Journey: History in Your Hands series from Primary Source Media. Events in Native American history cover all of North and Central America. Topics range from creation myths to the conquest, Indian wars, the American Indian Movement (AIM), language, land, environment, and casino gambling. Special attention is given to the great diversity of histories and cultures among the many different tribal nations in this hemisphere. Documents include the Mayan Popul Vuh (Book of the Dead), the Life of Black Hawk, and Las Casas’s Destruction of the Indies. The title is designed for Grades 7 through college. A single copy costs $149 per Macintosh–Windows hybrid CD-ROM. A new CD-ROM is published every six months as part of the American Journey series; CD-ROMs cost $119 for American Journey Club members. For more information about membership, contact Primary Source Media, 12 Lunar Dr., Woodbridge, CT 06525; 800.444. 0799.

relate for teens

How often do you find a software program that includes a list of potential funding sources for the software? New from Ripple Effects is relate for teens—a software program that addresses some not-so-simple adolescent topics: violence, abuse, drug and AIDS prevention, and more. The software’s purpose is both prevention and intervention through seven topics: knowing yourself, identifying with others, standing up for yourself, managing feelings, controlling impulses, making decisions, and being part of a community. It also includes that list of various funding sources and how the software can be used to meet funding goals. A single-user license costs $999 and covers more than 400 topics that relate to teens and their development. The three hybrid CD-ROM set has two software CDs and an educator’s resources CD. Ripple Effects, Inc., 333 Bryant, Ste. 110, San Francisco, CA 94107; 888.259.6618 or 415.227.1669.

Titanic: Challenge of Discovery

If your students’ fascination with the Titanic extends beyond Leonardo DiCaprio, then you might want to examine Dr. Robert D. Ballard’s Titanic: Challenge of Discovery. This Windows 95 CD-ROM from Panasonic Interactive Media takes students on dives to explore three famous wrecks using sonar, remote-operated vehicles, towed cameras, and the Discovery deep-ocean submersible. First find the Isis, a fourth-century Roman merchant vessel, then search for the World War II German battleship the Bismarck, before finding the Titanic. Ballard is the actual discoverer of the sunken Titanic, and he helped design the software’s content. Students must overcome ocean currents, storm-force winds, fog, ice floes, and the threat of a mutinous crew. Maris Multimedia, known for its science software, developed this program. Panasonic Interactive Media, 4701 Patrick Henry Dr., Ste. 1601, Santa Clara, CA 95054; 408.653.1888.

Copyright © 1999, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.